Reboot and FATE Core Experiment

I never watched this show...

So this initial blog was kind of a disaster. It was a poor idea in the first place, and had very little planning. But I have still been working on my RPG, making steady progress. It is almost in a playtest state, but more on that later. So instead, I decided to do a bit of a reboot of the concept.

I've been dabbling in various RPG systems, seeing of they could work for my own game. This got me into modding and creating my own content. This is especially easy in open systems. So instead of examining and dissecting various games, I thought, why not do some custom content.

I'll also be a little more reserved in my posts. I'll try to get something up as soon as possible, but I'm getting off the schedule. Posts will come out whenever I finish them. Let's see how that goes.

Our first step on this experiment.

Our first little piece of custom content, is going to be a FATE Core setting.

The setting is based off one of my favorite book series, The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix. The first bit is almost complete, but I want to put it onto a PDF file instead of copy pasting it onto this blog. I'll try to make it look good and it will give me more practice as a layout guru. I'm not great at layout, but I've been steadily improving and this should push me to the limit.

Also, just in case, this is not for profit. It's going to be completely free. Don't sue me.

Also, I might reboot the recaps of my games. Right now my group is running Savage Worlds. We're three sessions in, so it hasn't been that long and we're beginning a new arc.

Until next time.

Dirty Deeds in space: Episode 4

You can find out more about What's OLD is NEW at http://www.enworld.org/

[DISCLAIMER!] This is not indicative of my writing ability. These are written RIGHT after the game ends so I don't forget the details. They are rough. REALLY rough. But it's a lot of fun writing these and it's easier to keep doing them if I don't have to worry about grammar and stuff like that.

Episode 4: Fire, Run with Me

The session started out really late so this is going to be shorter than usual. When we last left off, there was an attack on the system leaving some Star Marines and Psi-Corp members dead. The team was stuck in a lock down on the system, waiting for the chance to leave and deliver the relic.

Instead of waiting, Bora decides to deliver the pirate corpses at the Star Marine base for the bounty. He conscripts Ruby and Vera to help him. Ruby is just going to pick up his package. Vera is going to look like a bounty hunter.

They leave the ship and are immediately assaulted by the acrid smell of smoke in the air. They brave their way through the thick black smoke to the elevators. However, their plans are cut short by a huge explosive device attacked to the elevator doors. There are bright red numbers counting down...

Ruby tries to disarm it using his brilliant engineering and fails...miserably (remember that Ruby is the ships engineer). With nothing left to do, the three run back towards the ship as the docking bay becomes a war zone. There's explosions everywhere and debris flying all over the place.

This is when we started the Countdown. I was generous and gave them 6 tries to reach the ship using their speed. Vera was VERY unlucky and was losing dice left and right. She was down to one dice by the third roll. I also gave them challenges to overcome, such as jumping over crates and avoiding flying debris. The three were down to almost one dice by the time pirates showed up to block their path.

Bora was having none of that and shot them with his psi attack. Vera didn't want to risk anything, and instead of fighting she dodged past the pirates. That left Bora and Ruby fighting the pirates to the death. Thanks to Bora's quick psionic attack, the two pirates left were almost dead and were quickly dispatched. Bora rushed with Vera to the ship while Ruby stayed behind to grab the pirate corpses for their bounty.

Vera just barely made it to the ship, having to make an AGI check to jump into Sa'La's pocket dimension. Bora didn't make it and had to try to find cover but failed. Ruby also tried to hide from the blast but didn't make it in time.

The bomb went off...rocking the entire station and nearly knocking the ship on its side.

On the ship, Sa'La is keeping the portal open for as long as she can. Elieth, going with his first instinct, starts up the ship and starts flying towards the bay doors. There's smoke everywhere, so Elieth has to be very careful not to crash. Some debris falls after another explosion knocking the ship around but Elieth keeps it on course. However, the doors are blocked by more debris and destroyed ships. Vera mans the gunner seat and fires...almost missing with the benefit of a luck dice. She blows a big enough space for the ship to fly out into space.

The crew waits at the doors for their two friends, hoping they made it.


Back on the station, before Ruby dies and is incinerated into nothing, he uploads his consciousness into the ships computer...for some reason.

Bora on the other hand, used the last of his strength to push the dolly full of pirate corpses into the portal. This is another END Countdown and he does manage to make it with no trouble. Before he dies of burns and various other wounds, a knife stabs him through the chest. Bora uses the last of his HP to blast the attack into a ship, destroying the enemies head.

Bora falls to the ground. Before he passes out forever, Bora suddenly hears whistling. He looks up and sees a man with a flaming helmet staring down at him.

FIRE
"Totally NOT a Pyromaniac"
A mysterious terrorist and associate of pirates. Real identity and race unknown.

"That was so cool." That's the last thing Bora hears before he dies.


Back on the ship, the crew is mourning. Vera goes to her room to drink away the memory of almost dying. Ayen asks them all what happened and Elieth explains the pirates must have attacked. She is really concerned about what happened and says, "My home."

Elieth calls Verner to discuss the deal. He informs Verner about what happened, shocking the large criminal. Verner then realizes that he heard pirate activity is down all over the galaxy. They followed the party into an under-defended system. Verner then asks if the relic is safe, pissing off Elieth. Elieth then says that some of his crew is dead and that his informant screwed up. Ayen then gets really aggressive and tries to choke Elieth. He talks to her getting her to calm down, explaining that she's now a ghost because they most likely think she's dead. She can go and do whatever she wants. "I never wanted to be a ghost."

Elieth then begins negotiating with Verner. He's holding the relic hostage until Verner calls off their debt. Verner is furious and threatens to press the self-destruct button for their ship. elieth doesn't even blink, reminding Verner that that would blow up the relic. Verner then says he will call of the debt and give them a bunch of bonus cash, if Elieth kills Ayen for screwing up. Elieth doesn't do it, but he's still pissed at her and says he will leave her somewhere the first chance he gets.

Verner wipes away the debt, and asks Elieth what's next for them. He wants to return to the Orci system now that he might have a chance to do it without being arrested. He's going to use the warp gate and try to get back on the right side of the law. The crew then finally starts to relax.

A little while later, they suddenly get a call from an unknown number. Elieth answers but doesn't put up the video screen. It's then that they hear a familiar voice. It's Don Krogeth. He says he heard about the station they were on blowing up. Elieth wonders how he knew that they were on that station and Krogeth just says he knows the right people to pay off.

Don Krogeth changes the subject by saying he has good news. They're now part of the Star Families!

CREDITS!

Numenera: Rules vs. Rules-Lite

A "newish" aspect of the RPG hobby is the rise of rules-lite games. Simply put, rules-lite games are really simple and don't take the commitment of a D&D style epic. You can pick up the book, a character sheet, a GM that knows the rules, and pretty much go. I've played a few of these rules-lite games with mixed results. My Numenera game was the most successful. With a game like Numenera, it doesn't take long to understand the rules. As people become busy or sessions get canceled, having these simple games nearby can save a game night with your group.

That being said, there are disadvantages to rules-lite in that they're pretty thin games. The best you can get out of them are a few sessions unless you're group really loves the setting. There is very little meat to actually latch onto. Numenera is structured very differently from these smaller games. It's a big game with a lot of reaching ideas, but the mechanics are simple and easy to follow.

I'm going to skip talking about the "classes" and character generation of Numenera for now and just focus on the base mechanics.

So here's an interesting aspect of Numenera, a player only gets one action per round. Compare that to D&D where you get around 4. This can feel extremely limiting to a player that wants their Jack to leap 12 feet through the air onto the monsters back and stab it in the eye. Alternatively, it keeps the action flowing quickly as players only have to think of one thing to do during their turn. In my experience, if you're playing this game very loosely, these rules actually make a lot of sense for a group that just wants to have a good time.

For a game like Numenera, the mechanics take a backseat to the story. Is this a bad thing, or a good thing? Well it really depends on what kind of game you're running. In a later article I want to talk about "crunchy" role playing games and how those compare to rules-lite. For now, lets discuss mechanics.

The problem with writing this article is, because the rules are so simple, there's not much to talk about. My only comment is that it works for what Monte Cook was trying to accomplish, and there lies the crux of what an RPG writer needs to think about. How do the mechanics fit with the world you're presenting. For a game like Warhammer, the mechanics need to be brutal and tactical (at least I'm assuming I don't actually play Warhammer). The mechanics need to compliment and enhance your setting.

How can they enhance your setting? Well Numenera kind of gives us a good example. The Numenera are strange and often dangerous objects of power and technology. The book provides a wealth of examples and mechanics for how to use them in your game. Providing so many examples helps GMs and players get a feel for what Numenera are and how they relate to the world. In my game, during the later sessions, I started to create my own Numenera. Now, if Numenera didn't have any of those examples, it would be much harder to imagine what a Numenera is and does. If you give a strong mechanical base for the readers, they can begin to play around with those mechanics and create their own ideas.

For my own RPG, there is an ambiguous mechanic of the world like the Numenera. Writing this has helped me realize I need to give players that strong base to work off of. The point of the game is to make your own, lets call them Numenera for now since I haven't decided on an official name, and explore the endless possibilities you can create. Gamers creating their own things in your world is what you should be striving for, but only if that's the point. Like most things, some games are designed with rigid backbones in mind, which is perfectly fine. D&D is like that.

Lets get into some nitty gritty and talk about Experience. At its general core, experience is just a mechanical number that tells your players when they get stronger. Simple and easy to implement if you're a combat focused game because monsters have a set experience they give to the players. If you're a game like Numenera and many other rules-lite games, this system needs some tweaking. For Numenera, experience is granted when the players make a discovery in the world. Not the most elegant system and it can leave some players feeling shafted if the GM doesn't award them experience for something they see as important. The game also offers experience for completing personal goals (a system I really encourage). This is a departure from the norm which can be really creative in the right circumstances. I'm not a fan of Numenera's experience system.

For a game like this, you're not meant to be going on grand quests that span years. A chronicle is supposed to span a few sessions and then end, at least that's the best way to play these games based on the mechanics. Still, awarding experience based on something nebulous like discovery can be a contentious thing. The best thing, I think, is just giving flat XP at the end of a session. For my own game, I'm going to stick with the more traditional style XP system for now but that might change as I explore the setting. We're going to end our discussion of XP right now because I have some opinions on other stuff relating to XP in a future article (most likely the last one). I am, however, interested in looking at other systems of XP generation. It's going to be a tough thing to nail down later on in the development process.

I think that's about it. So what is best for my game? I'm guessing somewhere in the middle. While I like most rules-lite games, and will sometimes get into them, they have a very short appeal timer. If you've got even one "gamer" in your group, these kinds of games will most likely bore them. Meeting somewhere in the middle between crunchy and lite appeals more to my sensibilities. I'm not a "gamer" or a role player. Unfortunately, Numenera didn't give me much insight into mechanical design. It's much too simple to be of much use (the mechanics chapter is only 29 pages). One thing I did notice is the inclusion of an "Optional Rules" section. I'll have to contemplate that for the future. Disappointing.

Next week, character creation where we explore what a class actually is, and if it's important for a game. Until then.

Dirty Deeds in Space: Episode 3

You can find out more about What's OLD is NEW at http://www.enworld.org/

[DISCLAIMER!] This is not indicative of my writing ability. These are written RIGHT after the game ends so I don't forget the details. They are rough. REALLY rough. But it's a lot of fun writing these and it's easier to keep doing them if I don't have to worry about grammar and stuff like that.

Episode 3: Pirate's Booty

So, when we last left off our players had killed a person on camera and now have a 100,000 credit bounty on their head. They fled to the Muscae system for sanctuary. In the 2 months it took to get there, they've been bored as hell. Most of them updated their skills and careers in the time...also we apparently have a 3D printer and "printed" some new gear. Whatever.

The Muscae system is mysterious to most of the universe. It's home to the venetians and their newly formed Space Butterfly religion (they worship a giant butterfly that hatched from a nearby ice giant). They separated from the rest of the universe after the galactic wars and now shun everyone except traders.

The team now live on the Orion Trading Station. It's the smallest station in the system and is mainly just for trade. They've been living in the hanger bay for a month and haven't made many friends. Because of the tight security and lack of trade, smuggling isn't a fruitful trade. They've been sitting on their hands for a while.

That is, until they get a call from Verner. He explains that the police found out that the team stole documents from Slugworth's office that probably tied the dead man to the Star Families. Because of that, the police are doubling their efforts. Bora has been looking through the documents but can't decipher the legal jargon.

However, Verner didn't call them to tell them that. He has a job for them. The Muscae system is home to the Psi-Corp and they are housing a cash cow of psychic relics. Verner knows that these relics are fetching a HUGE price on the black market. He got in contact with a corrupt Psi-cop that's willing to sell them the relics. At the mention of her being a psychic, Ruby gets an MP3 player and blasts music to make sure she can't read his mind...he also covers his head in tin foil. The group jumps at the chance to finally do something, especially Elieth when he hears it's a woman. He puts on his nice hat, ready for his date...I mean meeting!

Before they can leave, they're confronted by Dock Master Aurae.

Dock Master Aurae
"Your Rent is Late!"
The tough talking master of the space dock on the Orion Station. She manages all the incoming ships that enter the Muscae system. She's tough and doesn't like people being late.

Aurae asks Elieth for his rent which he quickly hands over. Aurae also asks them why they've been in the Muscae system for so long. They try to convince her that they're traders but she's unconvinced since she never sees them loading cargo. She asks them if they're criminals because she might want to hire them in exchange for rent. Despite that, they deny her and she leaves.

Ayen meeting them in the only bar in the system (the venetians banned alcohol). It's not that hard to spot her, as she's doing her best to not be seen...in a very loud and obvious way. Bora contacts her through his psychic powers and she agrees to meet with them.

Ayen
"Corrupt Psi-Cop"
She's working for Verner to supply him with psychic relics. Her reasons are shrouded in mystery.

Elieth tries to use his "charms" on her but she responds by almost breaking his hand. After that's settled, she reveals that something happened. They go back to the ship to discuss things in private and she reveals that she lost the relic. After she stole it, she hid it for the drop. Someone stole it. Luckily she knows who. Groups of pirates have been flooding into the system. Some of them managed to find the relic. When the crew wants to tell Verner, Ayen is shocked and immediately stops them. They ask her what's wrong but all she says is that this job is important.

Luckily, Ayen knows a snitch that will get them a meeting with the pirates. After an hour, she finds him...

Space Station Billy
"There's Gold in them there Space!"
Mental Status: Insane. Financial Status: Lost it all to a mule. Marital Status: Committed to his sandwich.

Billy leads them to the pirate's base after they pay him a hefty price. A sandwich. Before the meeting, they want to make sure Elieth looks like he actually has the cash to buy the relic. As of now, he looks like he will need a loan for lunch. They get him a suit. Elieth also wants some gun polish but meets up with a very forceful borian. He wants to sell Elieth some diamond gun polish. When Elieth refuses, he keeps going down in quality such as gold gun polish, silver gun polish and diamondium gun polish (the most beautiful substance in the universe). In the end, they decide that Bora and Vera acting as his bodyguards will look intimidating enough.

The pirates are hidden in the trading port on the Orion Station. Through bribes and secrecy, there's a large section of the trading port that's hidden for black market activity. The pirates are suspicious of the group. They're composed of a bunch of dwarves with laser axes. There's a few other grunts with guns in the room. The pirates want 600 thousand for the Starfire Wrath relic. They bring out a large stone shaped like a star. Elieth tries to bluff the pirates to get their trust but fails miserably. It's at that point where Bora and Vera jump into combat. They get access to the ambush round, along with Ruby who was listening in at the door.

Vera and Bora jump at the grunts pointing guns at them. With a slash of his psi-blade, one does down and Vera shoots another. Ruby jumps into the room and slashed through a grunts stomach before decapitating him. Elieth runs behind a table and kicks it over for cover.

Regular combat starts and the dwarfs rush towards our heroes. They're kept at bay for a while with some lucky shots thanks to Vera. One gets pissed and smashed the table where Elieth is hiding. Some of the other pirates have magic and try to shoot ice beams at Ruby but he just dodges them like a boss. Ruby them activates spin to win and cuts through a dwarfs gut and head. The dwarf is bleeding heavily and is clearly almost dead.

Sa'La is in a tight spot because she's stuck outside but does manage to buff Ruby using a spell. The dwarfs are wrecked by Vera and Bora but one does slip by and strikes Elieth, knocking him out. No one seems to notice...

One wizard tries to distract Ruby while the other runs out of the room. Ruby cuts down the wizard with ease and then finished off the dwarf. The other runs out the door and is face to face with Sa'La. Sa'La, equally surprised, stabs him with a poison spell, killing him instantly. Before rushing inside, she notices that there's a blinking light on his jacket.

The battle ends with Bora thrusting his psi-blade through one dwarf who curses the party before dying. Vera shoots another dwarf, her tries to warn the party of something but Vera just shoots his head off. The battle is over.

Ruby is now focused on finding a janitors closet to clean up the blood. Sa'La makes a pocket dimension to hide the bodies, the relic, and some crates they find. Before that, they notice the blinking light is attacked to a communicator with a few messages on it such as, "why did you activate your SOS?" or "What's going on?" They decide to book it before anyone finds out. Bora tries to send a message saying everything's fine but a new message pops up saying "we know who you are."

They leave but the large streets are empty and silent when before there was the oppressive environment of the possibility that you might die. They turn a corner and see a bunch of dead pirates. They turn around and find a felan that looks more like an android. She introduces herself as Yara Spalding.

Fleet Captain Yara Spalding
"One Man's Hero, Another's Worst Nightmare"
She's a powerful felan that modified her body beyond belief. Captain of a fleet of pirates that are all under her control. She has ambitions in the Muscae system.

She seems really happy to see the party. At first, she wanted to kill them and even chased them across space. But after finding how remote the Muscae system is, she decided that they did her a favor. She thanked them by killing the pirates that were about to kill them. Before she leaves they try to attack but in a flash she has her metal claws at Bora and Elieth's throats. She bids them goodbye.

They get back to the ship to find Ayen freaking out. Someone's killed a bunch of Star Marines and Psi-Cops and she thought it was them. The station's on lock down so they can't leave for now. They're fine and just wait it out for now.

Bora goes into the pocket dimension and looks through the crates. They have a bunch of weapons and drugs. Bora wants to sell them.

Ruby wants to look for bounties on the pirates they killed. The dwarves all have bounties. Before he lots off the Matrix, he gets a mysterious message. The address is complete gibberish. It says that Ruby has a package waiting, does he accept? He does and there's a package waiting to be picked up addressed to Ruby.

Numenera: The Introduction and Why it Matters

The first tabletop game I want to examine is Monte Cook's Numenera. This book made a huge splash when it was first released following a successful kickstarter campaign. The hype was real for this one, and I got caught up in it hard. Numerous sites released glowing reviews of the book and for the most part I agree with what was said. At face value, the book is a gorgeous piece of art with some really smart design decisions. However, there are some flaws to this gem. I'll get to those later down the road. Right now, we're focusing on the introductory chapter to the book and how to draw readers in.

Numenera: A game of sci-fi fantasy adventure.

Numenera begins with a short piece of fiction, The Amber Monolith, but I'm going to skip that part for now. In a later post I want to discuss the pros and cons of opening fiction in a book, so for now we're just going to look at how Monte Cook draws us into the game.

This book does away with a traditional opening chapter and drops the reader straight into the Ninth World (the name of the setting in Numenera). This is actually a bold decision by the writer. Traditionally, an RPG book will begin the book with an opening piece about what an RPG is and how it is played, along with some minor setting information. Looking at a few newer games, this seems to be a recent trend. We will not be focusing on that right now. We are just looking at how Numenera draws us in.

The first part of Chapter 1, labeled Welcome to the Ninth World, begins by dropping the reader straight into the back story of the Ninth World. There is a lot of information in this short introduction that does not pay off until much later in the book. The author goes into detail on what is the Ninth World. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, the world of Numenera is built upon eight separate ages of humanity that each fell into ruin. The Ninth World is the most recent age and is obsessed with finding the relics of the past.

That is the main crux of Numenera, discovering the relics of the past and using them to build your future. The introduction continues on to explain what kind of things you can expect to do in the game but it is very brief. It is a tiny snippet of what you can expect.

This introduction to the setting wraps up by going into the politics and make up of the Ninth World. It goes into brief detail on the Amber Pope and a few other organizations. Reading through this, the information is really brief and does not paint how vast and expansive the world actually is. This brief section on the Amber Pope could have been cut for a look at what the world is like. I'll get to this later, but the author put a lot of love into making this world very open and expansive. The main selling point of the book is its world, and space was wasted on politics that might not be interesting to a potential reader.

Luckily, the next section redeems the previous paragraphs. The People of the Ninth World goes into detail on who actually lives in this strange sci-fi landscape. There is too much information to really go into detail. Just know that it gives you a look at the NPCs you'll potentially meet, some enemies that might crop up including the strange mutated creatures of the Ninth World, and who you will play as. This is what an introduction should do. It gives you a brief and tantalizing taste of what this game is all about from a more human perspective. It continues this later on in the section by trying to explain the Ninth World from a twentieth century perspective. It is more of a summary of other things that have been said, and could have been better integrated into the other parts of the introduction rather than a separate section.

I'll wrap this up quickly. The final part of the section goes into detail on the different types of Numenera. This is a decision that is baffling me. There are three detailed sections dedicated to Artifacts, Cyphers, and Oddities. Is this needed? From a new readers perspective, not really. Looking at descriptions of items you might get in your campaign is not that interesting. And yet, Numenera is built upon the discovery of these relics. It would have been better if the author had merely summarized the information into a few paragraphs.

Let us take a closer look at what is the purpose of an introduction.

A good introduction should be painting a picture of something like this.

The introduction draws the player into your book. Drivethru offers a little sample of your book for potential readers. This little sample is most likely your introductory chapter. It is the first taste your reader gets of your product. When reading various RPGs, I have become aware of just how important an introduction is. There are some books that you begin and either skim through the introduction or just flat out skip it. That should not be happening. Now let us look at what Numenera does right.

It drops the reader right into the world. This is important because you should not beat around the bush when expressing to the reader what your game world is about. I will be exploring an extreme example of why this is important in another RPG Lab later on to help illustrate my point. Just know, it is best to push readers straight into the meat of the game. However, the book should have expanded on the setting because that is the main reason you are going to be buying this book. The introduction serves its purpose but it could have been tightened up to ensure the reader keeps reading the introduction.

Let us apply this to my own game. My game is built upon a central setting like Numenera. Because of this, that little introduction is very important. With a game like Dungeons and Dragons or Savage Worlds, the mechanics are what draws the players to the game. You have to sell potential readers and answer the question, "Why would I play this when I can just play D&D and make up my own setting?" Reading and examining this first chapter of Numenera has given me a lot to think about. I need to wait until a majority of the game is written before I write the introduction, but I think it should be a constant thought in my head as I'm writing. How do I sell this game (for free mind you) in a flooded market? That is the real challenge.

To conclude this first part, let us break down what a good introduction looks like:

1. You need to draw in new readers with a taste of what they can expect.
2. Give an engaging explanation of the setting.
3. Tell potential players who they are going to be playing.
4. Keep it short and keep it tight on the details.

I am a big fan of games with built in settings while some friends of mine prefer the make it up yourselves games. Choosing to set my game in its own setting carries many challenges and advantages. We will discuss those later on when we get into Numenera's mechanics along with the recent trend of "rules lite" games. Until next time.

If you want to continue the discussion, leave a comment. You can also follow me on twitter @RisTigger.

Dirty Deeds in Space Episode 1-2

I decided to post some of my recaps here to bolster stuff on the blog. This is taken from the game I'm currently running called Dirty Deeds in Space. It's a sci-fi game using the beta rules for a new system called What's OLD is NEW. I've been running it since December. There's been some ups and downs but it has been really run. Please enjoy one of these every Saturday.

You can find out more about What's OLD is NEW at http://www.enworld.org/

[DISCLAIMER!] This is not indicative of my writing ability. These are written RIGHT after the game ends so I don't forget the details. They are rough. REALLY rough. But it's a lot of fun writing these and it's easier to keep doing them if I don't have to worry about grammar and stuff like that.

Introduction: How do I describe this particular game? Have you ever played Borderlands? This game is a very tongue in cheek sci-fi game staring a group of outcasts and weirdos on a ship they lucked into. The universe is dark and full of bizarre people and crazed villains. That's pretty much it. Enjoy! 


Setting: The universe has been ravaged by war. After years of expansion and progress, a period of stagnation created powerful factions that bid for control of the galaxy. Years of war and rebellion, the universal government was dismantled and each planet was allowed to govern itself more or less. Our heroes are smugglers, soldiers, bandits and vagabonds trying to make their way in this crazy universe.


Our "Heroes"

Elieth RuneStar
"Full Time Lover, Part Time Captain"
Elieth is the ships pilot, captain and owner. Despite his lecherous ways, he's a good negotiator and a bit of a people person. He grew up on ships and now works as a smuggler aboard the Crimson Star.

Bora
"Pissed off Psychic"
Bora grew up in the controversial Psi-Corp and that's where some say he got his attitude. He has no qualms about lighting his enemies on fire and then blowing their brains out their ears. Violent but always reliable, he's the co-owner of the Crimson Star.

Vera
"Shoots First, then Keeps on Shooting!"
Vera may seem like she's constantly pissed off...and that's because she usually is. She was hired as the muscle and also acts as the groups gunner. May be a functioning alcoholic if you stretch your definition of functional.

Javelin Ruby
"Janitor..."
A bizarre spartan that believes he can amount to anything if he tries. This is unfortunately wrong. He's the ships engineer but is mostly concerned with janitorial work. He also has a bad habit of decapitating people...

Sa'la Yela'mirõ Ghy'eliza Fenêri
"Ridiculously Long Name, or just Ridiculous?"
Sa'la is a mysterious creature that hasn't set foot off her planet before. Somehow she ended up with this insane crew and acts as one of their gunners and the ships wizard. Her past is a mystery along with everything else about her.


Episode 1: To the Stars Part 1

Elieth has just mortgaged the Crimson Star from the fairly trustworthy businessman Verner on the planet Marcus. The Crimson Star us a Courier Class 2 star ship.

Verner
"THAT Mother Fucker"
He's a businessman on the side but his real job is organized crime. He does own a bunch of legit space docks and repair stations. Best ship modifications in the system!

As a caveat for purchasing the ship, Verner needs the crew to find a group of space pirates and recover some cargo they stole.

The crew is a bit weary of the mission as they follow a tracker signal into a nebula. They try searching for the ship but the nebula is messing with their scanners. Suddenly they're fired upon from an unknown location. They continue to try and scan for the enemy ship but it doesn't work. More shoots fire on the ship but miss.

A hail comes from the enemy ship. It's the pirates that stole the cargo. They aren't going to give back the cargo but their shots aren't going to be hitting anyone anytime soon. The captains decide on a trade. Our heroes claimed they had a cargo container full of gold. This caught the pirates attention and they agreed to trade.

On a nearby asteroid, the two ships land. Bora goes out with the fake cargo. Before the pirates can figure out what happens, Sa'la shoots a phaser gun at the enemy ship. It disables their engines and they're stuck on the asteroid. After a brief shootout, Bora kills the other pirate and secures the cargo.

The crew continuously disables the enemy ship that still can't hit our heroes. After disabling most of their systems, our heroes decide to board the enemy ship for epic loots. The ship is dark and they enter through the cargo hold so it's deserted. As they explore, a pirate bursts in yelling about trying to fix the ship. He sees our heroes and sounds the alarm. They subdue him and continue to search, eventually finding the engines with another pirate. Bora blasts his brain away and he dies instantly. They're caught off guard when Captain Torgrim and the remaining crew appear behind them.

Captain Torgrim
"BURN!"
A space pirate and lover of magical artifacts. He named his shotguns Bubbles and Sally. No one knows why.

The battle is tough with the captain wielding two magical shotguns with fire ammo. The pirate crew is killed quickly but the captain continues to fight on until he's decapitated by Ruby. Ruby decides to bring the head along as proof of their victory (despite the fact that they could just take their ID chips as proof). The head is stored in the fridge for some reason and the crew flies home, but not before stealing some crates of goods that the pirates had along with all their equipment.

They arrive back at Verner's office. He's in a meeting when they show up but it ends pretty quickly when he throws his business partner out a window saying, "it's all about supply and demand my friend, and demand just dropped." He greets Elieth and Bora and is happy that they accomplished the job. He does get upset when they show him the head and at the sloppy job they did. Verner is worried that pirates will be all over the crew now that they killed one of their own in such a brutal manner. However, he does pay them a bundle for the job.

The session ended with the crew relaxing on their new ship and Vera discovering a new bar.


Episode 2: To the Stars Part 2


It's been about a week since the first session. Elieth has managed to find a new job with a business type named Slugworth.

Slugworth
"Judge this Book by its Cover"
Slugworth is a businessman focusing on import and export. He imports cash and exports stuff you shouldn't be bothering about.

Slugworth wants our heroes to transport some goods to Loki III. He offers this job for a discount on the goods that Elieth is trying to sell. Elieth agrees and gets the heck out of there.

Vera has settled into her favorite bar, Space Moe's (he franchised). She's planning to just relax but since she's a regular and doesn't cause trouble, the bar tender calls her over. He tells her that a guy has been casing the place looking for her. Vera decides to wait until he makes a move. A huge Ogron approaches her and says he's got business with her. He wants her to go somewhere private but she won't move.

The Ogron explains that he works for the pirates and that she has a bounty on her head. He's also got a pistol trained onto her gut. Before he can attack she throws whiskey into his eyes. She gets up behind him with her sword and tries to put it around his neck. He breaks her grip and tries to shoot but misses. She goes at him and manages to take the big guy down.

Despite the treat of pirates looking for an easy bounty, the crew flies off the next day to Loki III. It's not going to be easy to get into Loki because all ships need to go through a space port before landing on the planet. Using an invisibility spell, they manage to hide the crates from the scanners. However, it's here where they meet Mitch and Steve.

Officer Mitch & Officer Steve
"Bastard, Bigger Bastard"
The two most pissed off cops in the galaxy. Hobbies include corruption and stun batons.

Mitch and Steve are customs officers and subject the crew to a "random" search. Elieth tries to diffuse the situation but they take everything he does as a threat and uses their stun batons. "Is he threatening an officer of the law Steve?" "I believe he is Mitch." Stun baton on Elieth and only Elieth. Despite their best efforts, they don't find anything on the ship and let the crew leave but not before stunning Elieth one more time.

The crew takes the crates through the seedy world that is Loki III until they end up as a warehouse. They enter to find a bunch of well armed men sitting at a table. The crew introduces themselves and the goons are pushed out of the way as the leader says, "Sit! Sit down my friends!" They come face to face with the android Don Krogeth.

Don Krogeth
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Psycho-Bot"
A high ranking member of the Star Families (the mafia of the galaxy). He may have some wires crossed as he's very erratic.

Krogeth congratulates the crew on completing the job, but quickly brings up the fact that he has a gun pointed at Elieth. Elieth tries to use his charms to diffuse the situation. Krogeth explains that Slugworth paid him to kill the crew when they delivered the goods. But, Krogeth doesn't exactly like Slugworth and makes that very clear. He does like Elieth though and says he won't kill them, on a few conditions.

They have to drop off some cargo in an asteroid field, and they have to kill Slugworth. The crew quickly agrees and Krogeth is incredibly happy that they aren't dead. Instead of dealing with another "random" check, they decide to bribe Mitch and Steve. As the crew leaves Loki, Elieth looks out the window and sees Mitch and Steve flipping him off.

They fly out and drop off the cargo pretty quickly, but as they're leading the nebula they're suddenly attacked. Two pirate ships fly up next to the ship and fire at them. The crew is assaulted a few more times before finally getting in contact with the two pirates. The pirates explain that they're trying to get the bounty on their heads which comes to about 8000 credits.

The battle is fairly shot with Vera getting off some major hits on the two tiny ships and nearly destroying both. They let the ships leave but not before finding out who set up the bounty, Captain Spalding. They also leave a message that any pirates are going to get destroyed if they attack the Crimson Star.

Fleet Captain Spalding
"???"
Pirate. Everything else Unknown.

The crew stops back on Marcos where they started to deal with Slugworth. They decide to be subtle and just go through the front door, pushing past employees and secretaries. In Slugworth's officer, they get in his face and ask for their money or they're going to kill him. Slugworth agrees and rummages through his desk for some Data Sticks. He then yells, "Get Them!" A shoot is fired that hits Elieth in the back. Three guards with guns have shown up.

A battle ensues with each side firing from different rooms. The guards try to talk their way through the situation and get Slugworth to safety but they see it's going south. As a last resort they hold a gun up to Bora's head and threaten to blow his brains out.

Meanwhile, Elieth and Slugworth are fighting each other. Elieth shoots Slugworth in the shoulder and disables him but Slugworth manages to stab Elieth with a hidden knife. The guards are taken out and the crew gangs up on Slugworth. Sa'la uses her magic to to invoke horrible fear into Slugworth and he's ready to give them everything. She's pissed that he lied and went back on their deal. Elieth gives her a nod and she sends his head into another dimension (that obviously kills him).

The cops are quickly on their way so the crew pockets the Data Sticks and some documents before leaving.

So it turns out Elieth didn't intend for Sa'la to kill Slugworth. He was just saying they should take the money and leave but Sa'la didn't understand.

Back on the Crimson Star, the crew is relaxing when they get a call from Krogeth. He's very happy they killed Slugworth and informs them that they're on television. He explains that there's security footage of them killing all those people. They then get a call from Verner. He's furious with them for getting into so much trouble that might also lead to him. He also informs the crew that there's a 100,000 Credit bounty on their heads.

Elieth is freaked but he says that Verner should just say that they stole the ship. Verner calms down and says that he will try to help when he can but that they need to leave the system. He suggests they go to the Muscae system since it's removed from most of the goings on in other systems. The crew agrees and leaves as quickly as they can.

Cue Theme Music!

An Introduction to Tabletop Laboratory

What is the whole point of this project that I've half-assedly started?

The gist of it is I'm going to be examining a variety of role-playing games. We're going to be looking at the book, the mechanics, and how it works in actual play. What genre is the game and how does it represent that genre? What kind of character can I make? Do the mechanics hold up and engage players? How does it feel to be the game master? All these questions and more are going to be answered by me every week. Of course I can't just write about games every week so I'll break it up with other nerd stuff or editorials about various topics if I need a buffer.

Who am I?

The name is James. I've been gaming since...forever but I've only been role-playing for a short amount of that time. I started at 10 and only got back into the hobby a few years ago. I'm ALWAYS the GM. I love being the game master and telling a story with my players. That's how I have fun. I started with D&D 3e. Didn't really get it since I was 10 and had to teach myself the rules. I did love looking through the monster manual. I got that for Christmas and spent hours reading through it. I got back into the hobby with D&D 4e (We'll be talking about that soon) and AD&D (Ditto). Now I'm experimenting with new systems and game worlds with my friends.

Why am I doing this?

Because I want to write my own game. I don't want to reveal too many details right now, but I'm hoping this will help engage possible players. My plan is to use this as a way to look at mechanics and how a book is laid out so I can make my game the best it can be. It will also keep me motivated. Eventually the game will be available on DrivethruRPG for free whenever I get to finishing it.


And that's it. I'll post my first thing next week. My plan is to do this every Thursday.
If you have a suggestion for a role-playing game I should cover, leave an email or a comment.